Tell me about Telescopes

[TXLNGHRN10 341]

I've been hanging out in the country near Smithville lately and the star gazing is fantastic.  I'd like to get a telescope to view the constellations and milky way. 

What doe one look for when buying a new or slightly used telescope?

[52-80 19233]

bought a thousand dollar one for my wife for christmas because she said she wanted one.  that was 3 years ago and she's literally used it never.

[deadshank 24653]

Don't look at the sun through them.

That's all I have  for  you.

Pay me.

[deadshank 24653]

1 hour ago, 52-80 said:

bought a thousand dollar one for my wife for christmas because she said she wanted one.  that was 3 years ago and she's literally used it never.

The hot neighbor musta moved.

[ROFL BOX 6649]

Don't look at the sun through them.
That's all I have  for  you.
Pay me.

If Trump can stare at the sun, why can't I?

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk

[ROFL BOX 6649]

wives & the stupid shit, etc.

Specifications / model info, etc? I'll possibly offer you $ 500.

[For the wife or scope... who knows?]

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk

[TwiceHorn 31532]

A lot of amateur stargazers find a solid pair of binoculars more useful and versatile.

[Paper_jam 831]

First: before diving into a telescope, consider a good pair of binoculars. You won't get the high magnification of a telescope, but they do a good job with looking at the night sky in general.

Telescopes:  There are many varieties. If you are mainly interested in looking at faint stars and star formations you probably want a reflector or Dobsonian type. Bigger is generally better, until you get to a point where it's too bulky to move around and set up.

If you just want to look at planets and the moon, and brighter stars, a small refractor type may work. I find this type more convenient to move around and set up. However, inexpensive (small) refractors are best for brighter objects rather than faint galaxies or stars.

Some scopes have motorized, computerized drive systems which, once calibrated and aligned, will help point the scope at the object you want to see. (Not as trivial an exercise as it sounds. Manually aiming a scope at a faint object using just the crappy finder scope that comes on most telescopes can be a little difficult.)  The down side is, when that motorized drive and/or electronics fail out of warranty (and it will) it will turn the scope into a fancy looking, expensive brick. (Just happened to me.)

Another frustrating thing about telescopes, especially inexpensive ones, is that their quality and usability right out of the box can be suspect. Plan on spending another $100-200 (or more) on upgrading accessories like eyepieces, the diagonal, focuser, etc. 

Here's a couple of link which may be useful:

https://www.adorama.com/alc/0014311/article/A-Beginners-Guide-to-Telescopes

https://www.ozscopes.com.au/choosing-a-telescope-html

 

I hesitate to give any recommendations, partly because I don't know your budget and partly because I'm not sure what is "good" right now. I'm looking at the Meade StarPro series, which looks like it might be a decent no-frills entry level scope, but I'm pretty sure some parts will need to be upgraded immediately.

https://www.meade.com/telescopes.html?experience_level=82&series=154

Also, Meade has a "Polaris" series that is similarly low priced. I suggest avoiding the Meade "StarNavigator" series as that's what I have and the motor drive just died on me. (But while it worked it was OK.)

 

Celestron makes a line of scopes that you can mount your smartphone on, and using their app, it will help you aim the scope. Seems to require a good phone though, both in camera and in the phone CPU. And I have not seen enough reviews to be confident that it works well.

https://www.celestron.com/collections/starsense-explorer-smartphone-app-enabled-telescopes

 

I didn't even get to the difference between equatorial mounts and alt-azimuth...

 

 

 

 

[TwiceHorn 31532]

Although I am not any kind of stargazer/astronomer, I own a decent spotting scope for shooting.  It's 60x and has a big objective and a lil tripod.  It is fairly handy for viewing just about anything at a pretty good distance.  I used to keep it in my office on the 70th floor of our building and saw all kindsa shit during the day and at night too.

[ROFL BOX 6649]

1 hour ago, TwiceHorn said:

 I used to keep it in my office on the 70th floor of our building and saw all kindsa shit during the day and at night too.

Where's the vid for some boss shagging the underling from 2 office buildings over?  We're waiting...

[TwiceHorn 31532]

Not that kinda shit.

[Braff Zacklin 13654]

7 hours ago, TXLNGHRN10 said:

I'd like to get a telescope to view the constellations and milky way. 

You need binoculars for that.

A telescope will help you see nebulae, distant galaxies, Saturn's rings, Jupiter's bands, etc. But even a wide-field Plössl lens won't net you as good a view of a constellation or open star cluster as a decent pair of binoculars.

[Updawg 2286]

I’d avoid the motorized until you really know what you want. Some good advice on this thread

[Hornbeliever 713]

9 hours ago, TXLNGHRN10 said:

I've been hanging out in the country near Smithville lately and the star gazing is fantastic.  I'd like to get a telescope to view the constellations and milky way. 

What doe one look for when buying a new or slightly used telescope?

That new moon right now out there makes it great.   I'm out there close by and last few days were great. 

[TXLNGHRN10 341]

Thanks for the advise, especially Paper_jam.  Braff Zacklin & Hornbeliever Saturn has been really bright out here and I'd like to see the rings if possible. 

I haven't set a budget yet because I don't know what I'm getting into. I figured a couple hundred bucks was about the top of it. Not trying to get all McDonald Observatory

 

[TwiceHorn 31532]

The thing about a telescope is that it has such a narrow field of view that you can't see shit captain without star charts and a drive or a at least a sighting scope.

Binoculars are much easier that way.  But you get high-powered, say much over 10x, and they're heavy and also need a tripod to avoid shaking.

[Beantown Express 2.0 6559]

I own a Nexstar 6SE motorized telescope I bought about 5 years ago (maybe more).  Haven’t used it much in the last year or two.   Like one of the posts above said the problem I have is that the computer isn’t working at this point and in Dallas the telescope store that could fix this stuff closed down a few years ago.  The advantage of the computerized telescope is you can put in what you want to look at (moon, Jupiter, galaxy, constellation, etc..) and it will track it across the sky so you don’t have to worry about losing it in the sights every 10 seconds or so.  Also, by the time I was done buying the telescope, filters, eye pieces I was at like $1200.  The cool thing about this scope is I could see the rings around Saturn and the clouds on Jupiter along with Jupiters moons.  One of the keys is to remember these home telescopes are not the Hubble.  While seeing Saturn and Jupiter is cool, they are still kind of small and not all colorful like the computer generated stuff you see on TV channels.  I love the ease of the motorized/computerized telescopes but if you don’t live near a store that can fix it when it craps out you get a really expensive telescope that is kind of a pain to use.

[Braff Zacklin 13654]

1 hour ago, TXLNGHRN10 said:

Thanks for the advise, especially Paper_jam.  Braff Zacklin & Hornbeliever Saturn has been really bright out here and I'd like to see the rings if possible. 

I haven't set a budget yet because I don't know what I'm getting into. I figured a couple hundred bucks was about the top of it. Not trying to get all McDonald Observator.

Saturn's rings with binocs is a big ask. However, Jupiter was huge and bright during Neowise's flyby, and using binocs to observe the changing positions of Jupiter's four Galilean moons every night was more thrilling than the actual comet.

Quality binocs will also allow you to see Andromeda.

That said, Neowise looked outstanding in my antique 8-inch Celestron cat and even better in my buddy's 11-inch Meade cat--an intense, pale blue.

Being a hobby, your interest will probably wax and wane much like the moon, so consider @Paper_jam and @Beantown Express 2.0's advice and maybe start small.

[52-80 19233]

9 hours ago, ROFL BOX said:

 

 

Specifications / model info, etc? I'll possibly offer you $ 500.

[For the wife or scope... who knows?]

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk
 

ours is a sky-watcher 80mm refractor apo.  the magnification wasnt anywhere what i naively envisioned, even after swapping different eyepieces. 

 

be prepared to spend lots of money on the tripod.   possibly even more than telescope itself.  because the movement and motions are magnified alot, the tripod has to be ultra sturdy.  also the manual tripods are difficult to aim and lock off, so you might want the motorized/computerized ones, which are $$$$. 

 

the other consideration is whether the setup is just for viewing, or you want to capture astrophotography, for which there are tons of accessories adapting cameras to the telescope.

 

we just used it to scope out the moon when we first got it, then never again

[ROFL BOX 6649]

7 hours ago, 52-80 said:

ours is a sky-watcher 80mm refractor apo.  the magnification wasnt anywhere what i naively envisioned, even after swapping different eyepieces. 

 

be prepared to spend lots of money on the tripod.   possibly even more than telescope itself.  because the movement and motions are magnified alot, the tripod has to be ultra sturdy.  also the manual tripods are difficult to aim and lock off, so you might want the motorized/computerized ones, which are $$$$. 

 

the other consideration is whether the setup is just for viewing, or you want to capture astrophotography, for which there are tons of accessories adapting cameras to the telescope.

 

we just used it to scope out the moon when we first got it, then never again

So are you interested in selling it or what?

[52-80 19233]

1 hour ago, ROFL BOX said:

So are you interested in selling it or what?

shipping the scope and tripod 5000 miles might cost more than its worth.  plus you'd have to convince the wife

[ROFL BOX 6649]

Tell her you're giving it to your girlfriend's kid - you aren't sure if it's yours or not, but you want his birthday to be special one way or the other.

[deft 6876]

All the cool kids are rocking dob reflectors. My homies hate refractors.